Hi guys. I have the metzeler lasertecs,front and rear-stock size, for about 2k milles--previous tires brigdestone bt45 oem.
I see great diference between two tires--i don't know if there was something wrong with bridgestones(maybe faulty lot...first time tires) but my new tires are much more stickier in all driving conditions...i have much more confidence to me and bike now...and i use it only as commuter. :dunno_black:
The most important for me is that now,in lateral winds, the bike is more stable and i can go faster for about 15-20 mph under same conditions, feeling safe.
As for durability, i think that new tires will give worse mileage than bridgestones. I will be happy if they last 12-15k milles.
Hmm, here is the question: better handling or longer life? I prefer better handling...but i''ll keep testing and other tires in the future(if i'm healthy etc first of all... ;))
:cheers:
Nice review, Sotomoto. Thanks! :cheers:
how many miles did you run on your bridgestones?
28k milles :o--i know it's not normal, i should have replaced them earlier...but notice that: after a point(20K I i think) i couldn't see any compound(rubber) loss...i change them when they started to show cracks on surface... :confused:
But from the start, i felt they were not sticky etc...
What ???? you got 28K from the 45's, I've never heard of that, I am lucky to manage 5K on the rear and 8 on the front, heck I barely managed 15K on a set of chengshins on a savage.
BTW I know nothing about tars. That line above sums all of my knowledge on them.
Cool.
Buddha.
12-15k!
I would assume any new tires would work better than your old ones. If they lasted for 28K they must've been hard as a rock, and would definitely be giving up something in the way of traction to get the high mileage.
What? you got 28K from the 45's? Buddha already said that but I just gotta agree. My first set of replacement tires 11 years ago on my 97 GS were the BT45 and I got about 9500 miles rear and 13600 miles front. I hadn't picked up the pace yet and 3 rear tires later when I was really riding my GS like it should be ridden I had another BT45 rear that was half worn out at 2000 miles when I changed to the Z4/Z2 radials. I kept pics of it because it was still very nicely round and not just worn flat from highway riding, it had seen mostly twisties and most of the tire was worn. It's been my experience that old hard dried out tires wear much faster as well as being less sticky.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/bt45wear.jpg)
I used some Dunlop K491 rear touring tires on my old Hondas that gave me 25-30k miles but that was a very different type of tire and when I tried one on my 97 GS and it just was not suitable, the GS wanted to go around the twisties much faster than that K491 did and I was happy to retire it early when it was punctured. But it did teach me how to catch a rear end that was constantly breaking loose. :thumb:
Now that I'm riding more like a little old lady again due to rapidly advancing years I'm getting great milage from the Roadrider tires. Like 15k rear and 20k front. Tire milage depends a lot on how you use them making it hard to compare between riders.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/GS500tirelogs.jpg
If anyone has figured out how to keep the typing box from jumping all over when you get past the bottom of it please let me know, I find it easier to start another post. :icon_lol:
Getting back to sotomoto's original post I had a pair of the Lasertecs on my 02 GS and they privided great stability like sotomoto said and I got about 10k rear and 12k front miles from them and was still riding pretty hard at that time. I had tried a pair of the now discontinued very inexpensive Avon AM51/52 tires and they were near their end of their life when I hit one of those roads with construction grooves that were very wiggly and it threw that square rear AM52 all over the place. Next morning I replaced the rear only with a new Lasertec and went back to that same road and could hardly feel those wiggly construction grooves.
The Lasertec remains my favorite front tire and the Lasertec/RoadAttack bias/radial combo remains my favorite handlers on the GSs. Besides wearing very evenly and not cupping and beveling badly like most front bias tires have for me the Lasertec has the best stability on grooved roads. The front Roadrider is second in grooved road stability with it's interupted center groove with curved ends and needs to be tried with a radial rear, maybe another 140/80 AV46 when I replace the rear next spring.
The weird thing about a GS is, the rear tracks those rain grooves much worse than the front if you have a center rib type tire. Its all over CA and I finally after 5-6 years of riding on it got to the point where I got used to it. Of course what did I do then ... move to NC.
There are cruisers that track the grooves with their front. Weird.
Cool.
Buddha.
Very well timed review, they are on sale online and I was thinking of ordering some to put on in the spring. My only concern is that they apparently have "low rolling resistance" to get better gas mileage. That's a fancy way of saying they offer a little less traction. I'd rather pay the extra $3 at the pump and have tire I can trust 100% than get an extra 500-1000 miles out of tires.
I love those contruction grooves. I've actually been pretty dissapointed that my current bike barely even budges when I go over them.
Low rolling resistance could possibly mean that the tire pressure is a few psi higher. Having spent some time on bicycles, I've always been curious why no one's tried to make motorcycle tires that went higher than 40psi. Road bike tires go up to 120psi, and even though there's no amount of knee dragging on bicycles, 36-40psi still seems ridiculously low to me. I know the lower pressure lets the tire spread out a little and gets more rubber on the ground, but clearly it's all over my head. After riding on 120psi for a so long, I can tell a huge difference if my tires even drop down to 90-100psi. You feel like you have a flat and forgot to eat breakfast all at the same time. Obviously 120psi in a tire that big is a ton more pressure than what's in a skinny bicycle tire though. Even bmx bikes are riding at 120psi and they do some pretty ridiculous things on those bikes.
The guy that changed my bridgestones in the tire shop told me that these tires, after a certain point, don't show any sign of rubber loss--it's the time they are dead-and that's so bad for the unexperienced riders(like me, gs is my first bike... :D). I don't know too much about tires...
The owner's manual says'' when the wear bars contact the road, it indicates that tire wear limit has been reached'' and it also says ''replace tires if tires show visual evidence of damage, such as cracks oe cuts, or if tread depth is less than 0.06 in front, 0.08 rear.'' I changed tires when i saw cracks but i believe that what i did was a fatal mistake cause tires were dead much more time before cracks appeared---i couldn't understand that cause i couldn't see any material loss after a point... :icon_rolleyes:
Guys i appreciate your knowledge and gsJack...you are a tire professor :D
I found on youtube a clip about choosing moto tires:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Yq7DMRwbw
and i also found this:
How to enhance tire durability
Not even the best motorcycle tires are timeless, so it is very important to maintain their optimum level and use them as well as possible. Some suggestions on how you could extend tire durability are listed below, thanks to streetdirectory.com:
* clean the tires with detergent and be sure to rinse them properly
* don't use harsh chemicals which will only deteriorate their performance
* clean and wax the wheels every week; in case of an aluminum one, make use of a corrosion-free chemical to make it free of rust
* check on the tires for the correct pressure each time you hit the road
* checking the tires and the wheels for cracks or loose nut bolts to prevent accidents
source:http://www.autoevolution.com/news/choosing-motorcycle-tires-15357.html
and one more... :wink:
http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html
I run tars till they go near bald, and I've run plenty of cracked rubber down to a slick, not a problem ... however even a hard as a rock tar will wear. If you ask me it wears rather a shade faster than that same tar in new shape, cos it starts to crumble or turn to dust instead with road contact.
However I still run em till they go bald ... :thumb:
Cool.
Buddha.
Quote from: gsJack on November 29, 2010, 08:29:19 AM
If anyone has figured out how to keep the typing box from jumping all over when you get past the bottom of it please let me know, I find it easier to start another post. :icon_lol:
I've been trying for about a year now, there is no way around it from what I've found. It sucks.
Quote from: The Buddha on November 29, 2010, 02:23:45 PM
I run tars till they go near bald, and I've run plenty of cracked rubber down to a slick, not a problem ... however even a hard as a rock tar will wear. If you ask me it wears rather a shade faster than that same tar in new shape, cos it starts to crumble or turn to dust instead with road contact.
However I still run em till they go bald ... :thumb:
Cool.
Buddha.
Seriously? Isn't that dangerous or something?
Quote from: redhawkdancing on November 30, 2010, 05:58:55 AM
Quote from: The Buddha on November 29, 2010, 02:23:45 PM
I run tars till they go near bald, and I've run plenty of cracked rubber down to a slick, not a problem ... however even a hard as a rock tar will wear. If you ask me it wears rather a shade faster than that same tar in new shape, cos it starts to crumble or turn to dust instead with road contact.
However I still run em till they go bald ... :thumb:
Cool.
Buddha.
Seriously? Isn't that dangerous or something?
Apparently not at the speeds I ride ... evidently ... but I've never had a tar leak from a cracked side wall, I have lost grip plenty of times, but its actually more gradual than you may think, and since it happens at a lower speed you also can catch it ... BTW I also ride in straight lines on highways to and back from work. No twist ties for me.
Cool.
Buddha.
Sorry I'm a little late to the party but there were a couple of things that didn't get responded to in the thread and it's not totally dead and buried yet. :)
Quote from: redhenracing2 on November 29, 2010, 02:38:59 PM
Quote from: gsJack on November 29, 2010, 08:29:19 AM
If anyone has figured out how to keep the typing box from jumping all over when you get past the bottom of it please let me know, I find it easier to start another post. :icon_lol:
I've been trying for about a year now, there is no way around it from what I've found. It sucks.
For what it's worth, I reported it in the Technical Problems sticky yesterday. Someone there suggested trying some browser other than Internet Explorer. So I just tried Firefox. That's how I'm entering this one. I pasted a whole bunch of text to force it well past the bottom and it seemed to work just fine. It's annoying to have to change browsers for just one forum but I just wanted to mention that Firefox does work.
Quote from: sotomotoThe guy that changed my bridgestones in the tire shop told me that these tires, after a certain point, don't show any sign of rubber loss--it's the time they are dead-and that's so bad for the unexperienced riders(like me, gs is my first bike... Cheesy). I don't know too much about tires...
The owner's manual says'' when the wear bars contact the road, it indicates that tire wear limit has been reached'' and it also says ''replace tires if tires show visual evidence of damage, such as cracks oe cuts, or if tread depth is less than 0.06 in front, 0.08 rear.'' I changed tires when i saw cracks but i believe that what i did was a fatal mistake cause tires were dead much more time before cracks appeared---i couldn't understand that cause i couldn't see any material loss after a point... icon_rolleyes
Hey sotomoto, the guy in the tire shop is bang on. :thumb: The next time you're into your dealer (bike or tire) or riding with an experienced friend, get them to show you what the wear bars look like so you'll know what to watch for next time. It's really obvious when the tread is worn down even with them. I find it's actually easier to feel for them with my finger rather than just looking at them. Once you know what you're looking for, it only takes a second to check them. I do it once every week or two. If the tires are so worn you can't see or feel the wear bars any more, you're tires are really really bad and you are just begging for trouble.
The Buddha obviously has some spiritual companion looking out for him. :bowdown:
...ken...
I have figure out that tire change every 2 years or 10-12k miles is ok... :dunno_black:
:cheers: :cheers:
Last summer i replaced my Bridgestones with Dunlop Roadsmart in front and Dunlop Gt501 in rear (there's no roadsmart 130/70 for rear).
The old Bridgestone rear tyre was so worn-out that there weren't any pattern in the middle so with new tires the bike was incredibly turnable, like it would fall on its side at low speed. Then i get into the first junction and tail slips out like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9zNUPDmnz4). Those new tires are really slippery for first 100 miles or so.
A radial front tire (Roadsmart) with a bias rear tire (GT501) is considered a bad mix and can cause serious oversteer when pushed to the limit. A bias front with radial rear can be OK and some bikes actually come with that mix now. I've run bias front and radial rear and actually prefer the bias front with a radial rear on the GS's.
Thanks for info. First I was going to buy GT501 set, but then my friend told me he liked roadsmarts on his bike so I wanted those too. Didn't realize how big difference it would make to mix those tires..